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UNILAG Crisis: Babalakin Gives Reason For Removal Of Vice Chancellor
By Emmanuel Awosika
Pro Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Dr. Wale Babalakin, has made public the reasons behind the Governing Council’s removal of the university’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe.
Babalakin accused the sacked VC of financial mismanagement, arguing that he had disregarded the university’s rules on managing financial resources.
“For instance, Ogundipe, without the approval of the Governing Council, renovated his official quarters for N49 million and also approved N41 million for the Bursar to renovate his own official accommodation too. This against the regulations of the university.”
“The financial guidelines of the University of Lagos gives the Vice Chancellor the power to spend not more than N2.5 million in some instances without the approval of the Governing Council and anything higher must be brought to the Council for approval.
“That is unacceptable. He must be investigated. We need to do that for us to start building the university. I can tell you that when we probed the account of the university, it was in tatters,” he stated.
Babalakin also alleged that Ogundipe falsified University documents and attempted to manipulate the university’s selection of a new Director of Works.
“Under the law of the university, it is the Vice Chancellor that chairs some committees. There was this vacant position of the Director of Works of the university and some people applied. Somebody from the Lagos State Polytechnic came first in the selection interview conducted. However, Ogundipe changed the final results of the applicants to favour his own choice.
“But he did not know that some people in the committee had made a photocopy of the results of each applicant and when he was confronted, he had to cancel everything and made another call for selecting the Director of Works,” he said.
Not done yet, Babalakin further accused Ogundipe of allocating more money for mundane things such as sanitation compared to key sectors such as provision of facilities and direct teaching.
According to the Pro-Chancellor, these actions were part of an attempt to create loopholes by which money could be siphoned from the University’s coffers.
Ogundipe, on his part, fired back, faulting the decisions of the Governing Council that led to his removal.
He released a six-page statement titled, “That University of Lagos May Know Peace: Submission of Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos, to the Governing Council at its special meeting on May 13, 2019”.
In the statement, Ogundipe said external auditors hired to look into the university’s accounts had detected no evidence of fraud on his part, although they had noticed some weaknesses in internal control of finances.
Ogundipe also faulted the composition of the Governing Council’s sub-committee on Finance, arguing that the appointment of a professor inexperienced in accounting practices to the committee had rendered it defective ab initio.
